Who Do We Mean When We Talk About Visualization Novices?As more people rely on visualization to inform their personal and collective decisions, researchers have focused on a broader range of audiences, including "novices.'' But successfully applying, interrogating, or advancing visualization research for novices demands a clear understanding of what "novice'' means in theory and practice. Misinterpreting who a "novice'' is could lead to misapplying guidelines and overgeneralizing results. In this paper, we investigated how visualization researchers define novices and how they evaluate visualizations intended for novices. We analyzed 79 visualization papers that used "novice,'' "non-expert,'' "laypeople,'' or "general public'' in their titles or abstracts. We found ambiguity within papers and disagreement between papers regarding what defines a novice. Furthermore, we found a mismatch between the broad language describing novices and the narrow population representing them in evaluations (i.e., young people, students, and US residents). We suggest directions for inclusively supporting novices in both theory and practice.2023ABAlyxander Burns et al.Mount Holyoke College, University of Massachusetts AmherstAutomated Driving Interface & Takeover DesignVisualization Perception & CognitionCHI
A Large-Scale Longitudinal Analysis of Missing Label Accessibility Failures in Android AppsWe present the first large-scale longitudinal analysis of missing label accessibility failures in Android apps. We developed a crawler and collected monthly snapshots of 312 apps over 16 months. We use this unique dataset in empirical examinations of accessibility not possible in prior datasets. Key large-scale findings include missing label failures in 55.6% of unique image-based elements, longitudinal improvement in ImageButton elements but not in more prevalent ImageView elements, that 8.8% of unique screens are unreachable without navigating at least one missing label failure, that app failure rate does not improve with number of downloads, and that effective labeling is neither limited to nor guaranteed by large software organizations. We then examine longitudinal data in individual apps, presenting illustrative examples of accessibility impacts of systematic improvements, incomplete improvements, interface redesigns, and accessibility regressions. We discuss these findings and potential opportunities for tools and practices to improve label-based accessibility.2022RFRaymond Fok et al.University of WashingtonVoice AccessibilityVisual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)Universal & Inclusive DesignCHI
Designing an Interactive Non-Linear Documentary Contributed by Public Participation: Suburbs of IstanbulSuburbs of Istanbul is a web-based interactive documentary project that examines the identity of suburban neighborhoods in Istanbul through the participation of its residents via online submission of their visual and written stories. Public participation also led the design process and helped prototype the interfaces of this non-linear documentary. This project aims to contribute to the field of interactive documentary and non-linear storytelling by integrating participatory design techniques in the prototyping process of documentary interfaces. Involving public both as content providers and as active decision makers in design process lead to a more genuine outcome with a human-centered approach. This project also intends to create an interactive experience to provide a greater insight into rapidly changing lifestyles of Turkish people, to provide a global context to the stories presented, and to generate widespread awareness of issues surrounding suburban lifestyles across the world.2020PYPinar Yelmi et al.Participatory DesignInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingDIS
Conservation of Procrastination: Do Productivity Interventions Save Time Or Just Redistribute It?Productivity behavior change systems help us reduce our time on unproductive activities. However, is that time actually saved, or is it just redirected to other unproductive activities? We report an experiment using HabitLab, a behavior change browser extension and phone application, that manipulated the frequency of interventions on a focal goal and measured the effects on time spent on other applications and platforms. We find that, when intervention frequency increases on the focal goal, time spent on other applications is held constant or even reduced. Likewise, we find that time is not redistributed across platforms from browser to mobile phone or vice versa. These results suggest that any conservation of procrastination effect is minimal, and that behavior change designers may target individual productivity goals without causing substantial negative second-order effects.2019GKGeza Kovacs et al.Stanford UniversityNotification & Interruption ManagementPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Data is Personal: Attitudes and Perceptions of Data Visualization in Rural PennsylvaniaMany of the guidelines that inform how designers create data visualizations originate in studies that unintentionally exclude populations that are most likely to be among the 'data poor'. In this paper, we explore which factors may drive attention and trust in rural populations with diverse economic and educational backgrounds - a segment that is largely underrepresented in the data visualization literature. In 42 semi-structured interviews in rural Pennsylvania (USA), we find that a complex set of factors intermix to inform attitudes and perceptions about data visualization - including educational background, political affiliation, and personal experience. The data and materials for this research can be found at https://osf.io/uxwts/2019EPEvan M. Peck et al.Bucknell UniversityUniversal & Inclusive DesignVisualization Perception & CognitionUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
The Effects of Adding Search Functionality to Interactive Visualizations on the WebThe widespread use of text-based search in user interfaces has led designers in visualization to occasionally add search functionality to their creations. Yet it remains unclear how search may impact a person’s behavior. Given the unstructured context of the web, users may not have explicit information-seeking goals and designers cannot make assumptions about user attention. To bridge this gap, we observed the impact of integrating search with five visualizations across 830 online participants. In an unguided task, we find that (1) the presence of text-based search influences people’s information-seeking goals, (2) search can alter the data that people explore and how they engage with it, and (3) the effects of search are amplified in visualizations where people are familiar with the underlying dataset. These results suggest that text-search in web visualizations drives users towards more diverse information seeking goals, and may be valuable in a range of existing visualization designs.2018MFMi Feng et al.Worcester Polytechnic InstituteInteractive Data VisualizationVisualization Perception & CognitionCHI